The posters of AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who is expected to be projected as the Prime Ministerial candidate by the Congress during the next Parliament elections, was torn by functionaries of his own party who came to blows over the torn posters of Union Minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti at the party’s youth wing meeting here on Friday.

The incident occurred even while Congress youth wing State president M Yuvaraja was addressing the press at the party’s district headquarters in the city. Yuvaraj was here to conduct select youth wing members for a training camp to be held by the party in December.

The ugly fight started with Karti’s supporters alleging that the posters of their faction leader kept at the party office was torn by Vasan’s supporters before the youth wing meeting.

They charged that the tearing of Karti Chidambaram’s posters were a great insult to the leader and in the melee that followed, the posters of Rahul Gandhi were torn and thrown on the floor by the Congress functionaries.

Karti’s supporters said the posters of their leader were pasted to greet him on his birthday which falls on November 19. “We were shocked to find that the posters at the party headquarters were torn. The district party office is common to all partymen. How can the posters be torn”, they asked. Supporters of Vasan started arguing with Karti’s faction and they came to blows following heated arguments. They assaulted each other and their shirts were torn. Senior functionaries of the party pacified the warring factions.

This is the second factional clash witnessed in the city within a month’s time. Karti’s supporters boycotted the pro-Koodankulam protest led by former TNCC president EVKS Elangovan in the city, charging that they were not allowed a place in the dais. Elangovan flayed Karthick’s supporters openly during his speech.

The Congress was dominated by the Vasan’s faction after the Tamil Maanila Congress was merged with the parent organisation.

However, Karti’s faction had made impressive gains in the recent youth wing elections, emerging as a major challenger to Vasan’s supporters.

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